A Rural Comedy 


in One Act 


THE 

JONESVILLE 

EXPERIENCE 

MEETING 


By Harry M. Doty 
Chatham, N. Y. 

I 

Price Fifteen Cents 



• - 9 



“The Jonesville 
Experience Meeting 




A Rural Comedy in One Act 

i ' ",'"3 IHZZZZ3 

By Harry M. Doty 

Author of ‘'In Old New England,” “Sackett's Corner Folks, 
“Spriggins’ ‘Quiet^ Afternoon,” “The Jonesville Sewing 
Circle,” “The Jonesvilel Board of Assessors, 

“The Jonesville Grange Initiation.” 

g jr-— — -T 

Amateur Production Free. 
c=z=z3c=a 

HARRY M. DOTY, Publisher, Chatham, N. Y, 

PRICE 15 CENTS. 

c==3t==a 


Copyright 1917 

Harry M. Doty, Chatham, N. Ya 




£ ' ? • / 


CAST 01 CHARACTERS 


Pnuleiice Skinner — ^Who has a little hoi^'llcultural experience. 

(Mary Jane Davis — In whose dollar there were but ninety-five 
cents. 

Sarah Ann Cibbs — Who made a brave effort along millinery 
Sines. 

Josephine Tidditt — ^Who illuminated one extremity of her bet- 
ter half. 

Charity Griffin — ^^^ho has boarded her last parrot. 

Julia Hopper — Who learned a few things about human na- 
ture. ^ 

Caroline Squires — ^Who did a little ^^sassin’M 

Harriet Hides — ^Who didn’t interfere much with the village 
barber’s business. 

'Mrs. Peckham- — ^V/hose tears were not those of sorrow. 

Isabella Peters — ^Who gave^the old rooster a new job. 






NOV 28 191? 


©CI.D 


48427 



“The Jonesville Experience Meeting” 

('Scene — The Jonesville clmrcli parlor). 

<Table or flat-topped desk rear center. Chairs for all ladies 

who take part) 

(Enter Prudence Skinner and Mary Jane Davis.) 

Prudence — ^My.land, v^eh’e the first ones here and I was all 
flustered because I v/as afraid I’d be late. 

iMary J. — was I but I just simply had to wait until I could 
finish churnin’ and it begun to seem as if that butter would nev- 
er come. 

Prudence — Don’t it beat all how pesky mean things always 
act at a time like that ? 

(Enter Sary Ann Gibbs and 'Charity Griflin.) 

Sary — ^How de do. We’re in time after all, ain’t we? Was 
afraid we’d be late. 

■Charity — 'Goodness gracious. I might just as well have made 
another hatch of ccckies as not. Guess I’d had plenty of time. 

Prudence — -That’s so. Two o’clock nowa'days means three 
’when these mcctin’s are held. 

Mary J — I suppose we hadn’t ought to say anything. You 
know it’s fashicnahle nowadays to be late. 

Charity — Mebbe ^tis but, lettin’ mi.e he the judge, it’s a poor 
fashicii. 

Sary Aim — ^Do such folks try it with the railroad trains? 

Prudence — Only on -the^ — (supply name of local railroad) 
That’s one place where you can most always be late and still be 
in time. 

(Enter Josephine Tiddit and Julia Hooper). 

Joseplime — ^Hello, ever^^bedy. We thought we’d he late, but 
there seems to be so^me several missin’ yet. 

Julia — ^And I nearly hurried m.yself out of breath fer fear 
ev’rything would be over when I got got here. 

(Enter Caroline Squires and Harriet Hicks) 

■Cliarity — ^Hcllo, here’s ttvo more. If it keeps up at this rate, 
we’ll scon have enough for a nieetin’. 


4 


THE JONESVILLE EXPERIE'NCE MEETING. 


Caroline— We'd been here sooner, but we dropped in on the 
way to see if the bride was ready. 

Sary Ann — ^Who do you mean, Isabella Peters? 

Harriet — Yes. You know she wanted to earn a dollar, likt 
the rest of us. 

Prudence — Is she comin ? . • 

Caroline — ^Yes but she wan’t quite ready when we called and 
6he asked us not to wait for her. 

Mary Jane — Wan't fryin' more egg’s, was she? 

Sary Ann — ^Wan't that the richest thing you ever heard? 

Charity — ^What do you mean? Guess I didn't hear about 
that. 

Josephine — ^You didn't? I thought everyone knew it. 

I Julia — ^^What -was it ? Do tell us about it. 

Caroline — ^^Well, you know she worked in a store for a good 
many years and lived in a boardin' house. Didnlt know the 
first thing about cookin' or bakin' and didn't try to learn. 
When Tom Peters married her, he wanted her to go and live 
with his m.other fer a spell and learn how to cook and take care 
of a* house, but she wouldnt listen to it. 'She said she wanted a 
home of her own and that she could get a cook book and learn 
all she needed to know. 

Harriet — I wonder Tom lived through it. ' 

Caroline — ^Well, he did or has somehow or other. 

^1 'Prudence — iSonie times it was pretty hard livin' fer him. 

Mary Jane — Bo I'm told. They tell me he used to keep 
crackers and cheese and dried herring out in the com house and 
eat some of 'em before ev'ry meal to keep from starvin' to 
death. 

Charity — Pretty poor fodder, I call that, fer steady diet. 

Josephine — ^Any poH in a storm. The poor man had to have 
somethin' he could eat. 

Julia — ^But what about the eggs? 

Caroline — ^Oh, yes, I was goin' to tell you about that. One 
noon Tom went into the house and Isabella was standin' over a 


THE JONESVILLE EXPERIENiCE MEETINC^. 


5 


hot stove, most roasted, watchin' suthin' in a fryin' pan. She 
told Tom she was sorry dinner was late, but that she’d been 
tryin’ fer an hour to fry some eggs and they wan’t no nearer 
done than when she begun. Tom looked in the fryin’ pan and be- 
gun to laugh. When she wanted to know what he was laughin* at 
he told her he guessed both he and she would die of starvation 
before she could fry them eggs with the shells on. 

Prudence — ^What’s that? Tryin’ to fry eggs with the shells 
on? 

Caroline — That’s just what she was tryin’ to do. Said she 
supposed the shells dissolved or melted or suthdn’ as soon as 
they got hot. 

iMary Jane — Ain’t that about the best you ever head ? 

Josephine — 'Great, but I don’t know as it’s any better then 
her experience with the pancakes. 

Julia — Guess that’s a new one. What was there about it? 

Josephine — Why they sot down to breakfast one momin’ and 
after Tom had took a mouthful of pancake he jumped up from 
the table, upsot two or three chairs and ran out doors as fast as 
he could go. He run to the pump and begun to rinse out his 
mouth. Isabella followed him and wanted to knov/ what was 
the matter. “What did you have in that syrup pitcher?” says 
Tom. /‘Why syrup, of course?” says Isabella. “Funniest 
tastin’ synip I ever run across,” says Tom, “Where did you get 
it. “Why out of the can in the kitchen” she says. “'Sufferin’ 
bullfrogs,” says Tom. “That wasn’t symp, that was oil fer my 
mowin’ machine.” It seems Tom told her that momin’ that he 
was goin’ to git some symp dowm to the store but it turned out 
that he couldnt git it. He brought home the machine oil instead 
and didn’t think to tell her he couldn’t git the symp. That’s 
why she thought there was syrup in the can and put a lot of it 
in the syrup pitcher. 

Julia — ^Well, the poor man is certainly havin’ a hard time of 

it. 

'Caroline — ^^Oh, he’s gittin’ along pretty well now, I guess. 
Leastwise I hear he’s got so he don’t keep nothin’ but crackers 
fer lunch out in the cornJKcuse and that looks as if he’s able to 


6 


THE JONESVILL.E EXPERIENCE MEETING. 


eat more thing's in the house. His sister tells me Isabella is 
^ttin' on fairly well although she does some laughable things 
now and then. Anyhow she’s tryin’ her best to learn and that’s 
more’n you can say of some of them city girls that marry farm- 
mers. 


Harriet — That’s right and when you see one of ’em doin’ the 
best she can, you feel more like helpin’ ’em. 

Prudence — (Locking off stage.) Here comes Mrs. Peckham. 
Now we can begin the m.ee'tin’. I’ll bet everyone is just akin’ 
to tell how she earned her dollar. I know I am. 

Jane — So am I. 


(Enter Mrs. Peckham) 

Mrs. P. — ^How de do, everybody. Here I be behind again like 
the old cow’s tail but 1 just couldn’t help it. Just as I was 
ready to start, Johnny come runnin’ into the house and toldime 
the old Brahmer hen was a hatchin’ her chickens, and, land 
sakes, them Brahmers is so clumsy that I knew she’d sqush 
ev’ry one of them chickens if I didn’t take ’em cut from under 
her and bring ’em in the house until they get strength enough to 
be put out with another hen if we can find one that’ll take ’em. 
Well, I’ve kept you waitin’ long enough. Let’s git down to 
■business. (Takes seat behind desk.) Meetin’ will come to or- 
der. (Ladies all take seats.) 

Sary Ann — ^Shall I call the roll ? 


Mrs. P. — No, never mind that; it will take too much time. 

Sary Ann — ^Glad of that because I come away in such a hurry 
that I forg-ot the hook with them names in it. 

Mrs. P. — Just as well. Now we’il do away with the prelimi- 
naries. You all knoAv this is the meetin’ fer tellin’ our experi- 
ences durin’ the last month in earnin’ the dollars for the benefit 
of the society. Anybody that wants it can have the fioor. 
(Ladies look at each other, each waiting for the other to begin.) 

Charity — Guess you’ll have to call on someone, Mrs. Peck- 
ham. Nobody seems to want to take the lead. 


Mrs. P.- — All right. Josephine, let’s hear from you first. 


1 


’ THE JONESVILLE EXPERIENCE MEETING. 

Josephine — I hardly want to he first because I feel that some 
of the others earned their dollars in so much better ways. 
However, I'll begin. I earned my dollar by blacking my hus- 
band's shoes. 

Julia — ^Weil, of all things. I'd like to see myself on my 
knees before any man. 

Josephine — I blacked them when they was off his feet. 

Julia — Oh, that's different. 

(Enter, hurriedly, Isabella Peters) 

Isabella — Oh dear, here I am way behind time. I knew PcH 
be. Is the meeting most over? ' 

Caroline — No, only just started. 

Isabella — Oh, I'm so glad. I do so dislike to be late but I 
just couldn't help it. I've been having a terribly provoking 
time with my chickens today and I didn't get things straighten-, 
ed out until a short time ago. 

Harriet — ^What happened? Fox get into the flock? 

Isabella — No, I \vanted to raise some chickens this year so 
I've been setting some eggs I sent away for. They just came 
this morning. 

Prudence — Had some trouble with 'em, did you? 

Isabella — -Yes I did, lots of it. You see our hens have been 
doing so nicely of late that it seemed a shame to make one of 
them stop laying and set on those eggs so — 

Mary Jane — Didn't you have no setters? 

Isabella-- Any what? 

Mary Jane — Any setters, hens that wants to set. 

Isabella — ^I don't know. I didn't try to make any of them set. 

Sary Ann — What's that? Make 'em? Woman, don't you 
know that one of the impossible things in this world is to make 
a hen set if she don't want to ? 

Isabella — ^^Why no, I didn't know that. I supposed they v/oiild 
set any time you wanted them to. 

Charity — Well, they won't and, on the other hand when they 
git their minds made up they're goin' to set, they're goin to. 


THE JONESVILLE EXPERIENCE (MEETING. 


n 

Argumen't ainT no use. The only way to change their minds 
at a time like that is to cut off their tails just behind their ears. 

Isabella — iV/ell, I didn’t have that to contend with. I didn’t 
try to have a hen set. 

Josephine — I thought you said the eggs is bein’ sot on. 

; Isabella — Yes, they are. 

t 

Julia — -Well, fer land sakes. If a hen ain’t settin’ on ’em, what 
is? 

Isabella — -Why, the rooster. (Ladies all laugh.) 

■ Harriet — ^The rooster! ^ : r 

i Isabella — ^Yes, he is, but I had an awful time making him do it 
i Mrs. Peckham — I ain’t got the least, bit- of *^doubt about that. 

Isabella — ^Of course, roosters don’t lay ^ggs. They don’t do 
.anything but walk around so I thought bet^ight better be 
spending his time hatching chickens so the hens could keep on 
laying. 

Prudence — ^Dcn’t you know that rooster won’t stay on them 
eggs ? Roosters don’t never set. 

Isabella — -This one will. He’s doing splendidly. 

Mary Jane — Well if that don’t beat all I ever heard of. How 
do you expect to make him stay on that nest ? 

Isabella — I got a soap box, put straw in it, put in the eggs and 
{[)ut the rooster on them but he kept getting off. Then I held 
him -on while I tacked over the box a piece of cloth with a hole 
in it large enough for him to get his head through. Then I put 
a bushel basket upside down over the nest because I’ve heard 
fowls prefer to set where it’s dark. When I left he had found 
out he’s got to stay on that nest and he wasn’t wiggling — that 
is, not much. 

Sarah Ann — Well, we leam suthin’ new ev’ry day. Isabella, 
1 wish you luck. If your scheme works, the roosters in this 
here neighborhood has got a hard time ahead of ’em from now 
on. 

Isabella — Before I forget it I want to say I earned my dollar 
making shirts for Tom. I was to make three but when I fin- 
ished the first one and showed it to him, he said I needn’t make 


THE JONESVIELE EXPEEIENOE MEETING. 


9 


r 

any more and he g^ave me the dollar right then and there. 
WasnT that fine of him? He said there wasnT any use of 
keeping it for best and he put it on the very next morning 
and all this week he has worn it while he worked. 

Harriet — (Aside). IMy land, she donT see why he stopped 
her after he saw that first shirt. 

Mrs. P — ^Now ladies, let^s get ibaek to the work we have on 
hand. We^re ready to listen to the other experiences in earning 
the dollars. (Caroline, how did you earn yours? 

(Caroline — I canned fruit for young Mrs. Applebee. 

Harriet — ^The idea of a woman having to have someone can 
her fruit fer her. 

Prudence — 1 say so, too. I wonder what Caleb Applebee thinks 
now of that chit of a wife of hissen. He wouldnU take a girl 
from light here at home who knows how to do things. 

Mary Jane — ^Yes, he might have had Virginia Thatcher. 

'Sary Ann — ^Of course he might. Virginia’s mother done ev- 
erything but ask Caleb to marry the girl. 

Charity — ^That’s true, I guess, but while Virginia can put up 
«ass, she’s got so many other shortcomings that I don’t know 
whether Caleb would have been much better off than he is now. 
You know her stock of ambition ain’t very big. 

Josephine — ^That’s so, too. 

Mrs. Peckham — ^Ladies we’re a gittin’ away from our subject 
agin. Julia, how did you earn your dollar. 

Julia — I went out collectin’ bills fer my husband, rather, I 
tried to collect. Never had such a time in my life. It was the 
hardest work I ever done. ISbme folks fairly insulted me when 
I asked ’em to pay their honest debts, accounts that had been 
runnin’ fer months. I was collectin’ on ten per cent commission 
and before I earned the dollar, I had wore out at least two dol- 
lars’ worth of shoe leather. Had to go three and four times for 
some bills. But I learned somethin’ about human nater and 
that is that some of the folks in this town that are the poorest 
pay are them that thinks themselves the biggest toads in the 
puddle. Some of ’em ain’t as good pay as the average men with a 


10 


THE JONESVILLE EXPERIE'NCE ^fEiETING. 


big family, who has hard scratchin’ to make ends meet, men' 
these high-toned folks wouldnT look at. 


Caroline — ^That^s light, 
folks’ money. 


They’re puttin’ on airs with other 


Mrs. Peckham — Now we will hear from Prudence. 


Pi'udence — I took care of Mrs. Cosset’s flower bed. 

Mary Jane — While she wuz runnin’ around, tryin’ to organize 
that village improvement society, I ’spose. 

Sary Ann— -Village improvement society, indeed! If there’s 
any place in this town that needs improvin’ wmrse ’n her’s does, 
I’d like to know where ’tis. 


Charity — That’s right. I don’t believe that back yard of hers 
has been cleaned in years. 

Josephine — And the house needs paintin’. 

Julia — And that front fence of hers looks like a fright. 

Caroline — And there’s any quantity of burdocks right in the 
front dcoryard. 


Mrs. Peckham — ^Ladies, v.-e’re gittin’ side-tracked agin. Mary 
Jane, how was your dollar earned? 

Mary Jane — I picked peaches fer ’Squire Higgins. 

Harriet — I didn’t know as them knotty, gnarly old trees of 
hissen ever had a peach on ’em. 


Prudence — Don’t see how^ they could. He never trims ’em or 
sprays ’em and is too stingy to hire it done. 

Sarah Ann — I’ll bet ycu didn’t find many peaches. 

Mary Jane — No, I didn’t, not good ones. When he looked at 
what I’d picked, he wanted to settle v/ith me for fifty cents. 

Charity — ^You didn’t let him beat you dowm, did you? 

Mary Jane- — Not a cent. I told him a bargain was a bar- 
gain and I couldn’t help it if there w^an’t as many peaches as he 
expected. 


Josephine — ^M’’hat did he do then, want you to take part of 
your pay in peaches ? 


THE JONESVILLE EXPERIENCE 'MEETING. 


II 


Mary Jane — Yes, that’s just what he done but I told him 
nothin’ would fill the bill ’cept somethin’ representin’ one hun- 
dred cents, I didn’t care whether ’twuz a greenback, big, round 
silver dollar or change. 

Julia — ^What did he give you? 

Mary Jane — Four quarters, one of ’em Canadian, that I 
couldn’t git but twenty cents fer so he got five cents the best of 
me in end. 

Caroline — Ain’t he the old pig, though ? 

Mrs. P — ^^Sary Ann, wFat sort of a time did you have gittin’ 
your mxoney together? 

Sary Ann — ^ trimmed a hat for Mrs. Snodgrass. 

Harriet — (Aside). My land, I wondered where she got that 
freak of a bonnet. 

Prudence— (Aside). Well of all things. From the looks of 
that heaapicce I thought Joslah Crumpit, the shoemaker, must 
have trimmed it. 


Mary Jane — I’m surprised to think she paid you. 

Sary Ann — iShe hasn't yet so Tve advanced the doHa,r myself 
but I think she wall. 

Charity— I’m prophesyin’ that if you keep that idee, you’ll 
overwork your thinkhi’ apparatus. 

Josephine — She’s ow'ed me two years fer a dozen eggs. Duns 
herself every time she sees me but that’s as fur as she gits. 

Julia— And we never got a cent fer a kitchen chair she 
bought at our auction. 

Caroline — Sary Ann, I guess you’ll always have sumthin’ 
cornin’. 

Sary Ann — ^Mebbe so but that’s the only opportunity I saw fer 
earnin’ a dollar. 

Harriet — You’ll earn a couple more, tryin’ to git it. 

Mrs. Peckham — Ladies, ladies, \ve’ll never git through with 
this meetin’ if we don’t stick closer to the subject. Now let’s 


12 


THE JONESVILLE EXPERIENCE MEETING. 


see, wlioll be next ? Charity, what was your method of earnin' 
a dollar? 

Charity — I boarded Mrs. FoskiPs parrot while she was visitin' 
her sister down to Fdddletown. 

Prudence — Puttin' out a parrot to be hoarded? I never heard 
of such a thing. Why didn't she take it with her? 

Charity — That's what I wondered at the time but I soon found 
out. I wouldn't have that bird in the house again if she'd pay 
me ten dollars. I never was so mortihed in ‘my life. 

Mary Jane — ^How was that? 

Charity — ^That bird uses dreadful swear words and he was 
always sure to act the worst when someone was in to call. I 
never felt so ashamed as I did one afternoon when the minister 
came to our house. We happened to mention the new dam that 
was bein' built down by the grist mill. When the bird heard 
that word, he started in and kept sayin' it with so many other 
awful w'ords connected with it that I finally just gi*abbed that 
cage and took it, bird and all, out into the woodshed. And that 
wasn't the worst of it. When I went back into the room, the 
minister said he believed he'd come over some evenin' and see 
my husband and have a little talk with him about his spiritual 
welfare. I saw in a minute that he thought the bird had learned 
them awful words from John and I don't 'believe John ever 
swore in his life. I was so wrought up I didn't know what to 
do. Forgot all about givin' the minister a little lunch and I 
guess he noticed it becuz he ain't called since. 

Sary Ann — You was lucky if that's all the bird done. I'd a 
wrung his neck. I've heard about that parrot before. 

Charity — ^But that wasn't his worst caper while he was there. 
John's cousin, Ann Maria from Baitlettville, come to stay over 
night with us. You know ho-w prim and precise she is and I 
didn't want her shocked, so I put the parrot in the storeroom 
right next to the room where she slept. That storeroom is 
pitch dark and I've always heard birds won't make a sound un- 
less they're where there is plenty of light. It didn't seem to me 
she'd been to bed more'n ten minutes afore she come a rushin' 


THE JONEiSVlLLE EXPERIENCE MEETING!. 


13 ^ 


down stairs, white as a sheet. She couldn’t talk for a minute 
hut finally we got her calmed some and she said the house was 
haunted. 

Josephine — ^What had she seen, a ghost? 

Charity — ^We asked her that and she said she hadn’t seen 
none but that she’d heard one right next to her room. 'Said she 
heard a ghost say, plain as day, two or three times. ^'Abandon 
hope, all ye who enter here.” You see it was that pesky parrot, 

Julia — No wonder she saw was scared. I’d a been myself. 

Charity — Once when a rehearsal fer a play was bein’ held in 
IMrs. Foskit’s house, someone had to say the words: ‘‘Abandon 
hope, all ye who enter here” and since that time the parrot has 
said ’em every once in a while. Of course I had to tell Ann 
Maria all about the bird then but she was so upset she wouldn’t 
sleep in that room so I had to make up a bed for her on the 
lounge in the sittin’ room. No amount of money could hire me' 
to board that parrot again. 

Mrs. P. — ^Now, Harriet, you’re the only one left to tell about 
earnin’ a dollar. 

Harriet — I earned 'mine cuttin’ my husband’s hair. C ^ 

Caroline — ^What, got a dollar fer one hair cut? 

Harriet — ^That’s how it turned out although the bargain was 
that I was to git twenty-five cents each time. 

Prudence — Then how did it happen you got a dollar fer once ? 

Harriet — After I’d cut it, he got up and looked in the glass 
and didn’t seem quite satisfied. I told him if he thought I 
hadn’t finished, I’d cut it some more but he said he thought I’d 
cut enough off, anyway in some places. Then he wanted his cap 
that turns down over liis ears and the back of his neck and for 
three or four weeks afterward he wore it whenever he went to 
the village although it was so warm there wan’t the slightest 
danger of his ears freezin’. When he needed another hair cut 
I offered to do it fer him but he said the barber owed him and 
he’d made up his mind to trade it out. I guess my hair cuttin^ 
didn’t suit him but he kept his word about the dollar. 


14 


THE JONESVILLE EXPERIENCE MEETING. 


Mary Jane — ^Beats all Kow pertickler some men is, don’t it? 

IMrs. P. — ^Well, ladies, that ends the relatin’ of experiences 
and I compliment you all on the success of your efforts. If there 
is no objection, the money will be placed in the society trea&- 
lary. (Pauses). Hearing none it is so ordered. 

Isabella — Why, Mrs. Peckham, you haven’t told us how you 
earned your dollar. 

■Sary Aim — ^That’s so. How did you do it? 

Charity — Yes, Mrs. Peckham, we want to hear from you. 

Mrs. P. — My experience was of so little consequence that I 
w^an’t goin’ to mention it. 

Josephine — But it isn’t fair not to tell it. 

Mrs. Peckham — Well, my experience was one that caused me 
many tears. 

Julia — Oh, Mrs. Peckham, I am so sorry. That took all the 
pleasure out of it, didn’t it. 

Mrs. Peckham — Not particularly. You see I earned piy dollar 
by gratin’ horseradish. 

Caroline — Well of all things. No, th.em ain’t tears of sorrow 
but they come pretty near it unless the gratin’ is done outdoors 
on a windy day. 

Mrs. P. — Yes, I grated horseradish, bottled it and sold it 
down to the store. I could have sold more but I’d rather earn 
money some other way unless it’s fer some such purpose as this. 

Isabella — Now before we adjourn, I have a suggestion to 
make. It seems to me Jonesville is getting to be considera- 
ble of a place for gossip and I believe this society can do some- 
thing toward stopping it.* ^ 

Harriet — Isaibella, you are right. Ev’rybody knoAvs there 
ain’t no gossips in this society and we should try to have other 

folks pattern after us. 

* 

Isabella — I have prepared a little resolution we might adopt. 

Mary Jane — ^Excellent. Read it to u3. 


THE JONESVILLE EXPERIENCE MEETING. 


15 


Isabella — (Reads). Whereas — Gossip, fault-finding and criti- 
cism is an evil that gnaws at the very vitals of any community 
and 

Whereas — It should 'be discouraged in every possible way, 
therefore be it 

Resolved — ^^That the ladies^ aid society of the Jonesville church 
most earnestly requests every resident in this community to be 
more careful and more circumspect and to guard against say- 
ing behind one’s back anything they would not care to say to 
that person’s face.” 

t Sary Ami — ^Fine. Something like that is needed in Jonesville. 

Oiarity — It surely is. The resolution should be made public 
and I believe it will cause more folks to follow in our footsteps 
by bein’ careful what they say about one another. I’m goin’ 
to vote fer it. 

Josephine — iSo am I. 

Mrs. P. — Ladies, you’ve all heard the resolution as read by 
Isabella. All in favor oT its adoption, please so signify by ris- 
ing. (All rise quickly). It is unanimously adopted. We will 
have it spread upon the records of the society and a copy pre- 
pared for publicaticn. Now if there is no other business to come 
before the meeting, we will adjcum by singing (Ladies may sing 
any selection deemed appropriate.) 


CURTAIN. 



... 




IPlai3^s 103 ^ :HC3urr3r IDot3r: 


In Old New England 

Four-act rural comedy. A clean, pure and wholesome play. 
Now in its fourth edition. 25 cents a copy. 

Sacketts’ Comer Folks 

Four-act rural comedy. Similar to “In Old New England” 
Adapted to small stages. Simple scenery 25 cents a copy. 

ONE-ACT HUMOROUS PLAYS ' 


Spriggins’ “Quiet” Afternoon 

It turned out to be anything but quiet. 15 cents a copy. 

The Jonesville Sewing Circle 

d’hey did some sewing but not much. 15 cents a copy. 

The Jonesville Grange Initiation 

xA burlesque. No horse play. Buy this, sure. 15 cents a copy. 

The Jonesville Board of Assessors 

It tells some things you’ve suspected. 15 cents a copy. 

The Jonesville Experience Meeting 

How the ladies earned their dollars. 15 cents a copy. 


HUMOROUS RECITATIONS 


“Nothing Serious” 

C'ompiled by H. M. Doty. A book of carefully selected hu- 
morous readings and recitations. This book will be found 
very valuable by those who wish to provide entertainment in 
connection with regular meetings of granges or other organi- 
zations. The selections are new, appropriate and up-to-date. 
.Price 25 cents a copy. 

Send all orders to ' 

HARRY M. DOTY, 

Chatham, N. Y. 


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



[ 0 012 383 527 R 



